MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) on Thursday said that its centralized bidding of fertilizers is “aboveboard and transparent” as it brought down the prices of urea fertilizers.
“The downward trend of prices of urea shows that we are on the right track in centralizing the bidding process, thus providing our farmers nationwide with affordable and reasonably-priced fertilizers,” DA Secretary William Dar said in a statement.
The DA chief added that the centralized bidding “favorably influenced” the retail prices of urea to go down to less than P1,000 per 50-kilogram bag, compared to the previous price of more than P1,100 per 50-kilogram bag.
Dar added that the urea fertilizers will be given to farmers for free under the department’s Rice Resiliency Program, which is under a “buy two, take two” scheme for those using certified inbred seeds, while “buy two, take three” scheme for those hybrid users.
Farmers in Central Luzon previously claimed that the urea fertilizers provided by the DA, as part of the government’s COVID-19 assistance program, were overpriced
The Ahon Lahat, Pagkaing Sapat Kontra Covid-19 (ALPAS sa Covid-19) alleged that the DA’s urea fertilizers, a total of 1.811 million bags, had a price of P1.8 billion or at least P1,000 per bag.
But farmers said the price of each urea fertilizer was only at least P850, which meant that there was an overprice of around P271.6 million.
In response, the DA chief said that the bags were already bought at a cheaper price, and that the department has protocols in place to prevent corruption.
Bidding process live via Facebook
The bidding process is also being livestreamed at the official DA official Facebook page “for transparency”, Dar said.
According to the DA chief, the current bidding was set at an approved budget for the contract (ABC) at P1,000 per bag, which is the ceiling price.
“Bidders that submitted proposals at much lower price than the ABC can be considered for the award if they fully complied with the legal, technical and financial requirements,” the DA chief added.
The department’s rice program based the ABC on month trends collated by both the Philippine Statistics Authority and Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority (FPA). And based on FPA data, the national average price of the urea fertilizer from February to April 2020 was at P1,051 per bag.
After a series of biddings conducted by the DA that attracted fertilizer manufacturers and distributors, Dar said two companies, namely La Filipina Uy Gongco Corp and Atlas Fertilizer, were awarded the 1.8 million bags.
“They will distribute the fertilizers, as per the delivery schedule set by the DA Rice Program, directly to municipalities covered under the Rice Resiliency Program in four lots, corresponding to four regions: Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Western Visayas, and Central Visayas,” Dar said.